The present invention relates to an oily-water separator utilizing coalescing effect and, in particular, to an improvement of the oily-water separator of the type.
In the conventional oily-water separator uitilizing the coalescing effect of oil particles, it has been usual to remove a greater part of oil and dusts at the first stage, to separate relatively small oil particles from water by a first coalescing at the second stage and then to separate fine oil particles from water by a second coalescing or to absorb them at the third stage.
This method is practically satisfactory, and one example of the separator of the type has been manufactured and sold by KEENE corporation, Cookeville, Tenn., U.S.A. under the name of KEENE mini.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic functional structure of the separator of the type, in which three vessels A, B and C are employed to perform the three stage functions mentioned previously, respectively.
However, since the stages used in this system function differently from each other, the number of the vessels must be the same as that of the stages, thus making the separator of this type voluminous and suitable for applications such as on board of ships wherein the space for installation is restricted. Further, for a full automatic operation of the three vessel system, an automatic oil discharge device must be provided for each vessel, making the total cost of the system expensive.